GamesOpen WorldI was ready for Arknights: Endfield to be a cool open-world RPG, and it is, but I did not expect a shockingly in-depth base builder on top of thatWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesOpen WorldI was ready for Arknights: Endfield to be a cool open-world RPG, and it is, but I did not expect a shockingly in-depth base builder on top of thatWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Hypergryph)
In some ways, Arknights: Endfield is following Genshin Impact’s footsteps remarkably closely. With both games, an established gacha developer has pivoted to a much more ambitious open-world RPG that has a better shot at drawing in hardcore gamers who aren’t quite so keen on mobile games. But that is where the major similarities end. As I learned in Endfield’s recent technical test, its world and combat are very different from Genshin’s, and more importantly, it has an entire second game – an unexpectedly deep Factorio-style base builder – up its sleeve.
It’s a gacha game, all right
(Image credit: Hypergryph)
(Image credit: Hypergryph)
The meat of the technical test was much more engrossing than the world, to the point that I’m still kind of sad it’s over and I can’t play anymore. Stubbornly ignoring the story for the time being, I would break Endfield into three main gameplay components: the gacha grind, combat, and base building.
“Strategic elements” is selling it short
(Image credit: Hypergryph)
To my delight, combat in Endfield feels like a middle ground between Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 – not quite as dynamic as the second one just yet, but with much more going on than the first. It’s a real-time 3D RPG that leans more into strategy than action. You don’t perform combos like you would in the likes of Final Fantasy 16 or Tales of Arise; to use basic attacks, you hold The Attack Button to automatically hit the closest enemy with standard swings of your weapon. If that sounds boring, that’s because it is. That’s why depth is layered in through the party system instead, and it works pretty darn well.
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Combat quickly becomes a mix of crowd control, aligning and avoiding AoE markers, and chaining skills together in the most efficient way possible. Combining certain debuffs lets you deal more damage or spawn energy orbs that you can detonate for heavy hits, and this is a much more effective way of fighting than just spamming whatever skills you have off-cooldown. You also want to save some skills to interrupt the red-ring special attacks that bosses do. There’s a degree of sequencing to Endfield that livens up fights, and I’m looking forward to theorycrafting parties with more units at my disposal.
Putting the industry in Endfield Industries
(Image credit: Hypergryph)
(Image credit: Hypergryph)
I don’t know how much crossover there actually is among fans of open-world games, RPGs, Arknights, base builders, and gacha games, but the two main gameplay loops of Endfield both seem solid enough to keep a huge range of players on the hook. I’m not even the biggest base building guy, but even I found myself sucked into that side of the game. The idea of playing Diet Factorio in order to streamline a gacha resource grind – and have a lot more fun with that grind as a result – is something I never knew I needed. Endfield is an eclectic mix of ideas that I need to see more of, so I’ll be following it very closely as it moves toward its PS5, PC, and mobile launch.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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